About the Show:

The “Forever and a Day Away” series started as a simple illustration in an adventure story. The title spoke to the long journey through the mountains, but has come to represent much more as the fine art series took form. Forever and a day away is how long it feels to complete each intricate piece. On a much deeper level, forever and a day is how long it takes for the artist to feel she has found artistic success through endless discovery and experimentation while constantly battling the inner critic.

About the Artist:

Avery works with a variety of clients to develop spaces into creative areas that reflect their lifestyle, work style, environment and personal taste. She paints with a modern simplicity, bold but not overwhelming, perfectly suitable for any home or business environment. Wall murals are her specialty. Avery also paints unique furnishings and other pieces to accent her painted spaces.

Avery studied Fine Arts and English at Clemson University. She started Avery O Design to share her love of art and design with other Austin area residents while still dedicating time to life’s many great adventures. In a few short years Avery O Design has transformed from a weekend side project to a full time creative enterprise serving Austin businesses and families alike.

Avery lives with her husband and two sons south of the river in Austin, Texas, where she spends her days playing, painting and doing more laundry than she’d like to talk about.

Artist Interview:

SprATX: Tell us a little about you and your path as a visual artist.

Avery O: Throughout my life I’ve enjoyed making art, but never thought of it as a possible career path. I didn’t trust in my own abilities and also fully bought in to the concept of the starving artist. I didn’t want to starve, so I pursued other things. My current career path has been mostly accidental, as I’ve since learned to trust what the world is telling me. I started painting nurseries and kids rooms for friends and acquaintances during a short and unsatisfying trial as a stay-at-home mom after my second was born. It was an excuse to get out of the house for long stretches of time and make a little extra money. I realized how much I liked it and soon afterwards opened my business, Avery O Design. I worked as a painter for a number of years before I was actually able to call myself an artist and trust that what I was making was good. I’ve learned to listen to my audience when developing my artistic style and new bodies of work and walk through the doors that open for me.

I have a fairly clean, modern illustrative style based on line work and patterns. All of the places I’ve lived have subconsciously influenced this style. I grew up overseas, in Singapore and Dubai, then moved to Louisiana and Texas for my middle and high school years. I claim New Orleans as home, as that’s where my family roots are. The patterns of Arabic art, line work of batik fabrics, and vibrancy and joy of New Orleans as a whole have inspired the style and feeling of my work. I’ve been in Austin for thirteen years and have a pretty fantastic South Austin life with my darling husband and our two somewhat feral and hilarious sons.

SprATX: Talk about the new body of work you’re currently working on. What’s the meaning behind it?

Avery O: I utilize a lot of line work and repetitive patterns in my art. My lines weave through the various mediums and are fully represented in my murals, illustration and now, fine art pieces. My current and first fine art series, Forever and a Day Away, uses repeating lines and patterns with color blocking to create simple landscapes. I fell upon this series accidentally, and am now in love with the zen-like monotony of creating these pieces. There is something really calming about the slow layering and building of each piece. It’s basically art therapy for all my Trump-induced anxiety.

SprATX: You have both a creative career and a family at home, what are the challenges you’ve faced finding a happy balance?

Avery O: My creative career is both because of and for my family. I never would have allowed myself the opportunity to quit a steady job and attempt a freelancer life without the excuse of babies to care for. I continued to pursue this career because of the flexibility it afforded me and my family. I plan work projects around school hours and holidays and am able to spend a lot of time with my boys. It’s such a blessing, but also a challenge as my work time is limited. I schedule mural work between 8 am and 3 pm, then sneak in a few hours of illustration or home studio time in the afternoons and evenings between homework, after school activities, play dates, dinner and bed time. I love what I do, and wish I could have a 50 or 60 hour work week. I always seem to have enough on my plate with commissions and personal projects to fill that amount of time. I’ve had to learn to say no to projects, which is hard because I always want to be creating and doing more.

SprATX: Share why you love Austin, TX.

Avery O: Austin has such a chill, anything goes vibe. There’s not a whole lot of pretension which is really refreshing. We have million dollar homes, a family of goats and a home-made sweat lodge all on our neighborhood block, happily co-existing. It’s a city where I never feel underdressed and can wear the same pair of overalls everyday for two weeks without shame. Austin is a place where everyone seems cool because there is no set definition of what cool is. And you can get good tacos for every meal, which I often do.

Avery O: When I first decided to start a painting business I reached out to an artist I found online to get advice. She shot me down pretty quickly and told me that since I was competition she wouldn’t share advice with me. I assumed that I was now in a competitive solo industry and kept to myself after that. Thank goodness other artists reached out to bring me into their fold over the years. I have now seen what an incredibly supportive and collaborative artist community Austin really has. SprATX is the epitome of that supportive artist community. It is a group that knows that our city needs a vibrant and successful artist community for any individual artist to find success. The access to the SprATX knowledge and space to create has been invaluable for me. This is the first time that I have ever created a full body of work to show, and I am so grateful for the opportunity.